


Stay On Your Feet (You Are Not Alone)

by BiconBane



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 2.13 coda, 2.14 coda, Abuse, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 20:47:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11744892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BiconBane/pseuds/BiconBane
Summary: Souls that need each other find each other.





	Stay On Your Feet (You Are Not Alone)

Maia rests her hip against the doorway as she tilts her head slightly as the music washes over her.

 

“You know,” she says, enjoying the way Jace’s head snaps up, “I haven’t heard anyone play the piano in person since high school. You’re better than the guy in band.”

 

Jace blinks at her once before springing from the piano bench. His mouth opens but no words come out and Maia watches as his cheeks begin to turn a fake pink. She doesn’t bother attempting to hide her growing smile.

 

“Maia,” Jace finally manages to get out. He shifts his weight and flexes one of his hands open and closed. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

 

“Really,” she says teasingly. Jace’s lips twitch up in a smile of his own. “You aren’t going to say hi, then?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.

 

Jace’s grin stretches across his entire face this time and he crosses the room to kiss her gently. “Hi,” he breathes when they part and Maia’s following soft laughter sends puffs of her breath against his cheek and lips.

 

“Very good,” she says and pats his chest. “I’d suggest saying hi in a much more fun way, but I actually think I’m here on business.”

 

Jace raises his eyebrows. “Really?” he asks, with genuine surprise. The look Maia shoots him makes him smile again. “Sorry,” he says. “I just wasn’t expecting--”

 

“To see me here,” she says. “We’ve already covered that, Shadowhunter.”

 

Teasing him, Jace thinks, is something she doesn’t ever seem to tire of. “My mistake,” he says. “You don’t know why you’re here?”

 

“Well,” Maia says. “Your infamous, previously dying, brother was the one who called me. And he doesn’t have any reason except business. Unless, of course, he’s the protective older brother type.”

 

“Uh, no,” Jace says quickly. “Alec doesn’t know about anything. And even if he did, he doesn’t like to get involved with my… stuff.”

 

Maia laughs. “Business it is then.”

 

“I guess,” Jace says. He runs through the current missions quickly and he frowns when he can think of none having to do with werewolves or Maia.

 

Maia isn’t paying attention to him. She’s slipped around him and is approaching the piano with intensely curious eyes.

 

“I didn’t know you played,” she says as she runs her fingers over the edge of the top. “You’re good.”

 

The warm feeling that blooms in Jace’s gut probably won’t be good for his future, he thinks, but he embraces it all the same. “Thanks,” he says. “I’ve been playing since I was a kid. My fa-- Valentine taught me.”

 

Maia looks back over at him and her face is unreadable. “And you still play?” she asks.

 

“Not often,” Jace admits and he feels his stomach swoop in an old fear response. “I like it but I only play when I… already feel good.”

 

Maia can feel her teeth grinding against each other, but that pressure feels far away. She presses one of the keys down and lets the sound it makes thump through her entire body. It takes a moment, but then she’s looking back at Jace and the gentle smile on her face is a real one.

 

“I’m glad I got to hear you play,” she says and she means every word. “And I hope I get to hear more.”

 

Jace’s cheeks have surpassed pink now and are leaning more towards red than anything else. Maia looks down again, and exhales softly. The tightness in her chest eases a little as she breathes out but some of it remains, but it feels different and, Maia can’t seem to be anything but happy about that.

 

\-- -- --

 

Maia sits on the edge of her bed and stares at her alarm clock. She was supposed to be at the Jade Wolf ten minutes ago.

 

A small, soft voice in the back of her mind whispers to her that she really needs to call in and get off work, but it’s easily smothered by the roaring white noise that echoes through her ears. She can’t move. Her breaths are shallow and fast. Is she even blinking? Her eyes are burning, so maybe not.

 

Alec Lightwood had let her into his office with a smile on his face. She trusted Jace’s brother, in as much as anyone could trust a Shadowhunter. He had, after all, been the one who had given the order to remove that tracker from her neck. 

 

When she had first heard what he wanted, she’d scowled, though. The Clave had apparently gotten news that there had been a sudden influx of werewolves in the New York area, and Alec had called her in to see if she knew anything about it, or if she could find anything out about it.

 

Maia had been prepared to curl her lip and tell him and the Clave to mind their own goddamn business when Alec had apologized, said he wouldn’t have bothered normally, and then revealed that many of the spotted werewolves had broken laws before. He needed to know if they’re a serious threat, Alec had said, and if they weren’t, and if the broken laws were misunderstandings (or something more sinister, Maia had thought privately), then he could help clear their names.

 

It was risky, and if she had been dealing with anyone but Alec, she would have stood up and walked up the door; that is, assuming they would have let her. But she had let her trust of Alec get the better of her, and she had nodded, hesitantly, and let him list off a few of the names of these werewolves.

 

That wasn’t fair, Maia knew. It wasn’t his fault; he didn’t  _ know _ . After that name had left his lips, and she had froze, he had even asked if she was okay. She couldn’t remember what she said in response to  _ that _ question. She couldn’t even remember how and when she had gotten home.

 

Jordan Kyle. The name felt like dirt on skin, like hands clawing at her clothes, like hot, strong hands that left bruises on her wrists.

 

She turns her arm over slowly, her palm facing the ceiling. She stares at her wrist, remembering the dull pain the first time he had grabbed her wrist and pulled her close, and the surprise when she had looked into his eyes and seen that dark anger. Eventually, she stopped being surprised.

 

_ Eventually _ , she had left. And he’d came back. And then she was strong and powerful and Maia had thought she’d would be free of him forever. And now… now he was back again.

 

Maia feels the bed dip beside her and she flinches.

 

“I -- ”  _ Jace _ . “I’m sorry.”

 

He sounds nervous, even more nervous than when she had challenged him in the alleyway. Less playful. She can’t bring herself to look at him.

 

Jace shifts. “The door was unlocked,” he says, and his voice grows a little stronger. “I probably should have waited, but I… I was worried about you.”

 

“Why?” Maia’s voice creaks like she’s an old woman.

 

“I saw you,” Jace says. “I saw you leaving and you looked… I’d never seen you look like that before.”

 

“I’m sorry I worried you,” Maia says.

 

Silence.

 

Maia finally gets up the courage to glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He’s staring at her, eyebrows knit together, and lips pulled down in a frown. If she was capable of feeling anything but fear and dull desperation, she would be angry by the pity in his eyes.

 

“I’m sorry about whatever happened to make you feel like this,” Jace says, and his voice is soft, like the whisper of a cool breeze. It soothes a bit of the hot pain that’s buried somewhere deep in her gut.

 

She waits for him to say more, to  _ ask _ , but he doesn’t. He just sits, close enough that she can feel the heat from his body, can feel her bed giving way to his weight, but he’s not touching her. She doesn’t know how long they sit there when she opens her mouth again.

 

“Did your dad love you?” Maia asks.

 

She expects an intake of breath, a hesitance, a silence, but Jace responses immediately.

 

“He’s not capable of love,” Jace says, and there’s anger in his voice. If she was anyone else, it might have worked to hide the pain.

 

“But you are,” Maia says.

 

This time, Jace sucks in a breath like he had been punched in the gut. “I am,” he says, and the anger is gone. There’s just pain now. “But he doesn’t deserve it.”

 

There’s still pain, but certainty too. “No,” she whispers. “He doesn’t.”

 

Her lips find Jace’s then, and their kiss is gentle. She keeps eyes are open, and he stares into them for a second before slowly closing his. She can feel him smile, softly, against her lips, and she feels better. Maybe not good, not yet.

 

But better.

**Author's Note:**

> This has been in the works since 2.13 aired. Black women are always expected to carry other people's emotional issues, and I wanted to write something where someone did that for Maia.


End file.
